The art of Equine Rehabilitation

2012-01-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

Hind Legs Engagement and Stifle Problem

he thought that the horse's gait could actually be changed to rehab or prevent injuries is almost completely foreign to veterinarians as well as trainers.” (Betsy Uhl, DVM, PhD. 2011)

When equine locomotion and athletic performances are analyzed in great details, like under the microscope, limb kinematics abnormalities causing injuries can actually be corrected. The horse’s physique can actually be optimally coordinated for the athletic demand of the performance. This evolution is made possible by updated understanding of the horse’s physiology.

Born with advanced research studies, the Motion Microscope Therapy has mature into a different field of research; the training ring. The result is a powerful therapy identifying and addressing the source of the kinematics abnormality causing the injury.

“A major cause of lameness is lameness.” Rooney’s famous idea is that when it is repeated every stride a mild kinematics abnormality causes injury. Kinematics abnormalities may originate from morphological flaw or muscle imbalance, but also from training misconceptions. Lacking the support of adequate scientific knowledge great authors’ thoughts have been distorted over time and simplified to the point of meaningless formulas. In fact simplistic formulas are the main cause of equine injuries. In this series, we review, one by one, the kinematics abnormalities causing injuries and how training misconceptions can create such abnormalities.

Hind Legs’ Engagement.

Whatever the horse’s specialty, the base of all equine athletic performance is the engagement of the hind legs. The point here is not to question the need for hind legs’ engagement but instead to underline the fact that focusing on the hoof placement is a simplification, which places the horse at risk of injury. Sound locomotion demands precise coordination between forward swing of the hind limb around the hip joint and dorso-ventral rotation of the pelvis. In his quantitative study on Swedish Warmbloods comparing back and limbs kinematics of good and bad movers, Mikael Holmström observed greater pelvis rotation on above average movers. “The undulation of the pelvis was larger in the horses with good trot and increased in passage.” (1)

The hind limbs and the pelvis have to move in the same direction. When the hind limb swings forward, the pelvis rotates dorso-ventrally. When the hind leg moves backward into the pushing phase, the pelvis returns into a more horizontal position. Pelvis and limb movements are proportional but soundness demands their precise synchronization. The problem is that it is possible through whip or spurs to create deeper engagement of the hind leg without adequate pelvis rotation. The kinematics abnormality might please uneducated eyes but places the horse at risk of sacroiliac (SI) strain and stifle problem.

There is actually a strong recurrence of SI problems. One reason might be greater concern from the veterinary world for back problems.“Even if back soreness is thought to be only a compensation for hock pain and other musculoskeletal disorders, practitioners still have an obligation to evaluate and manage the back problem concurrently.” (2) The second reason might very well be the fast forward misconception that is currently rewarded in the show ring.

Some of the kinematics abnormalities leading to sacroiliac strain are similar to the kinematics abnormalities inducing stifle problems. The kinematics of SI injuries will be studied in detail during our next Immersion Program, (February 17, 18 & 19). In this discussion, we focus essentially on the misconceptions about hind leg engagement that is placing the horse at risk of stifle injuries.

If forced to do so, a horse not using the vertebral column properly will deeply engage the hind leg underneath himself furthering the forward rotation of the femur around the hip joint. While rotating around the hip joint, the femur undergoes simultaneously an inward rotation around the tibia. This rotary movement of the femur occurs toward the outside, (medial-to-lateral,) during the swing phase and toward the inside, (lateral-to-medial,) during the support phase.

As the protracting hind leg swings forward, the stifle extends and the usual medial-to-lateral rotating movement occurs. “If the extension is carried on beyond about 143-145°, there is a final lateral-to-medial twist, which rotates the patella medially and hooks the medial patellar ligament over the medial ridge of the femoral trochlea. The stifle is “locked” and flexion prevented.”(3) This is the mechanism of accidental locking of the patella. To unlock the stifle, the quadriceps muscle contracts, lifting the patella as the biceps contracts, pulling the patella laterally. The horse’s quick reflex contractions prevent accidental locking of the patella but induce stride after stride of abnormal stresses on the joint.

At the canter, the problem is unlikely to occur because the gait does induce longitudinal flexion of the horse’s thoracolumbar spine and the pelvis does oscillate dorso-ventrally. Both hind legs are moving together into the swing phase and the axis of rotation is the lumbo-sacral junction. At the contrary, at the trot as well as at the walk, one hind limb moves forward and the other moves backward. Each limb rotates around the hip joint and the pelvis “ducktail.” The dorso-ventral rotation is naturally reduced. When training misconceptions work toward stiffening the horse’s thoracolumbar column, dorso-ventral rotations of the pelvis are reduced even more and the horse increases the rotation of the femur around the hip joint.

On a video recorded along the dressage ring of the Atlanta Olympics for kinematics studies, several horses exhibited grotesque parodies during the medium walk. The horses over tracked the hind hooves, without adequate dorso-ventral rotation of the pelvis. They were moving at the walk like Tennessee walkers. The ducktail motion of the pelvis was accentuated and they further rotated the femur around the hip joint extending the stifle joint too far. Later during the dressage test, these horses demonstrated severe stifle pain during piaff and passage. Through manipulation, one can easily create dorso-ventral rotation of the pelvis.

The relation between pelvis rotation and overall flexion of the horse’s thoracolumbar spine is then apparent.

Riding techniques altering longitudinal flexion of the horse’s thoracolumbar spine, therefore expose the horse to stifle injury. The most common misconceptions that stiffen the horse’s thoracolumbar column are speed and weight on the bit. A horse increases the speed by stiffening the thoracolumbar spine. The same reflex contraction is used by a horse leaning heavily on the bit. Lowering of the neck also tends to stiffen the back. Some horses have been shown to lose vertebral mobility in the thoracic area and all horses are losing vertebral mobility in the lumbar area when the neck is lowered.

The horse’s adaptation to the rider’s weight is to increase the duration of the hind limb’s supporting phase. More exactly, the horse increases the duration of the decelerating phase. This of course demands a more forward placement of the hind leg at impact. However, efficiency does not relate to the hoof placement but instead to how well each joint of the alighting hind limb is placed to optimally absorb impact forces. At the piaff for instance, the horse places the alighting hind leg less forward under the body than during collected trot. Uneducated riders think otherwise but their opinions lack understanding of the performance’s athletic demand.

While the hind and front limbs are acting like a lever at the walk, they work more like a spring at the trot. The vertical position of the hind limb under the croup is best suited for the task of decelerating the horse’s body through the flexion of the joints. “The hind legs have a considerable braking activity to avoid forward movement of the body over the forelegs. The forelimbs have a larger propulsive activity.”(4) As the joints of the supporting hind leg fold, they resist gravity and forward displacement of the body over the forelegs. Gravity and inertia forces are loading the supporting hind leg. If the hoof was placed more forward under the body, the stress on the canon bone would be greater. Also, the hock’s middle joint T3-TC would be under excessive stress and therefore prone to arthritis.

The opposite is equally damaging. When the supporting hind leg alights behind the vertical, the stress is greater on the hock’s lower joint, Mt3-T3. Basically the horse is placed in the situation of functional straight hock and is prone to injuries related to the morphological flaw. Horses are kind enough to perform even if the rider places their body into stressful positions. The price of course is lameness. More and more research studies demonstrate that cartilage issues, such as arthritis in the hock, result from abnormal stresses on tarsal bones. In most instances you see bone damage before you see the cartilage changes.

The horse adapts the hind legs’ hoof placement to the athletic demand of the performances. During the stride preceding the flying change, the horses achieving the best performances increase the length of time that both hind hooves remain on support. Basically, they increase the decelerating phase of the hind legs. “Preceding a lead change, the higher-scoring horses increased their contact duration of the hind limbs and decreased the length of step and time between forelimb impacts to prepare to execute the lead change in the succeeding airborne phase.” (5)

The race horse engages the hind legs more forward under his body than the dressage horse. Such engagement is definitively helped by the longitudinal flexion of the thoracolumbar spine and dorso-ventral rotation of the pelvis and sacrum around the lumbo-sacral junction, which is all natural at the canter. However, the race horse does not utilize greater engagement of the hind legs to enhance balance. Instead, the race horse utilizes the elastic strain energy accumulated during the decelerating phase to maximize the propulsive action.

The horse’s morphology also does influence the position of the hind hoof under the body at impact. For instance, two horses working with the same thoracolumbar column and pelvis rotation; a horse with a sickle hock will place the hind hoof more forward while a horse with a straight hock will place the hind hoof less forward. Forcing a straight-legged horse to track up deeply, would place the horse at risk of hock injury as well as sacroiliac problems and/or stifle issues.

Simplicity is the greatest achievement of knowledge but simplicity without knowledge is the greatest cause of equine injuries. “The horse’s hind legs need to track up at working trot”, is the type of simplistic formula which, if applied without sound understanding of the horse’s vertebral column mechanism and pelvis rotation, is likely to cause injury. In this circumstance the cure is knowledge. Greater engagement of the hind legs is not the cause but instead the result of sophisticated body coordination. This body coordination cannot be created by acting directly on the hind legs. Training formulas are, for a great part, grossly inaccurate and the rider’s knowledge of the underlying biomechanics factors is the horse’s best chance of soundness.

James Rooney identified the kinematics abnormalities causing injuries. The pathologist pioneered the biomechanics of lameness. The MotionMicroscope Therapy is about identifying and correcting the source of the kinematics abnormalities causing injuries. The Motion MicroscopeTherapy pioneers the biomechanics of soundness.

Jean Luc Cornille

References,

(1) (Mikael Holstrom, Quantitative study on conformation and trotting gaits in the Swedish Warmblood riding horse. Dissertation, Uppsala, 1994)

(2) (Kevin K. Haussler, DVM, DC, PhD, Preface, Veterinary Clinics of North America 1999)

(3) (James R. Rooney, Biomechanics of lameness in horses, 1976)

(4) (Erid Barrey, Sophie Biau, Locomotion of dressage horses, Conference on Equine Sport Medecine and Science, 2002)

(5) (N. R. Deuel, PhD: J. Park, PhD, Canter lead change kinematics of superior Olympic dressage horses, 1990)

http://www.scienceofmotion.com/motion__microscope_therapy_.html

2012-01-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

Equine Back Research

History of Equine Back Research Studies

Since the inception of the Immersion Programs I have observed that going through the history of equine research studies has better helped riders, trainers and therapists to understand how the horse’s vertebral column effectively functions. This history affords the participants a greater accuracy as well as an evolution from the simplicity of past theories to the complexity of actual knowledge. Studying the past also reveals from where and when the theories, that are still promoted in these present days come from, and just how long it has been since they have progressed. This text is, of course, just a brief summary of the original lecture.

It is true that the fascicles of the main back muscles are inserted obliquely on the dorsal spines The fascicles of the longissimus dorsi muscles are oriented oblique, down and forward while the fascicles of the spinaleus dorsi and more exactly the multifidius, are oriented oblique, down and backward. Their action induces rotary forces on the dorsal spines and correspondent vertebrae. This was explained by E. J. Slijper in 1946. The Dutch scientist also described the horse’s vertebral column functioning as a “bow” that can be flexed by the action of the “string”, which is composed of pectoral and abdominal muscles. The theory was referred to as the “bow and string concept.” With some variables, this is basically the concept behind most actual riding techniques as well as the concept supported in the video that started the discussion. The problem is that the concept was presented in 1946. Scientific findings and therefore knowledge has greatly evolved since 1946.

In 1964 Richard Tucker explored the thought that acting on the dorsal spines, the back muscles were allowing the vertebrae to transmit the thrust generated by the hind legs into horizontal forces, (forward movement), and to create vertical forces resisting gravity and therefore permitting balance control. Tucker furthered Slijper’s description explaining how, through their insertion on the dorsal spines, the muscles were compressing the vertebrae against each other favoring forward transmission of horizontal forces, (forward movement.) Simultaneously back muscles are inducing rotary movements of the vertebrae creating vertical forces, (resistance to gravity and balance control.) Tucker moved away from the simplistic idea that the thoracoumbar column was flexing and extending as a whole. The Polish scientist pointed out that due to the curvature that characterizes the shape of the horse’s thoracolumbar spine, the vertebrae and muscles situated on the ascending side of the curvature were working in the opposite way than the vertebrae and muscles situated on the descending side of the thoracolumbar curvature.

In 1969, James Rooney demonstrated that the work of these muscle groups, which are arranged in mirror images, has to be perfectly synchronized to ensure proper locomotion. If the fascicles of the longissimus muscles contract first, the thoracic spine extends. If the fascicles of the spinaleus dorsi contract first, the lumbar spine stiffens. Rooney basically demonstrated the damage created by the shifts of the rider’s weight, which is a theory that is still emphasized in modern days. If the rider’s weight is acting back to front, as emphasized in the driving seat theory, the rider stiffens the horse’s thoracic vertebrae. By contrast, if the rider’s weight is acting front to back, the rider stiffens the horse’s lumbar vertebrae. Rooney’s findings suggested an equitation based on a rider’s body maintained constantly on a neutral balance, which is exactly vertical over the seat bones. One of the defenders of the long and low theory referred to “Pilates.” If this person really knew Joseph Pilates’ approach, she would have realized that maintaining the rider’s body in perfect neutral balance and therefore with the vertebral column almost straight is Pilates’ real teaching. Her perception of Pilates for the horse is that the abdominal muscles flex the thoracolumbar spine. This is not Pilates’ teaching. The real Pilates idea is to balance the work of both abdominal and back muscles to straighten the spine.

Rooney’s work also suggested that the real relation between the horse’s vertebral column and the rider’s back was more at the level of subtle movements of the rider’s back instead of shifts of the rider’s weight. In relation to the work of the back muscles, Rooney’s explanation differed from Tucker’s view. However, understanding how the horse’s vertebral column converts the thrust generated by the hind legs, which is basically a horizontal force, into forces resisting gravity, which are vertical forces, is easier to visualize mentally with Tucker’s explanation. This does not mean that Tucker’s explanation should be taken word for word. All these explanations are attempting to describe forces, which is an abstract concept. True understanding demands several ideas aiming toward the same concept. Rooney’s insight was that the creation of upward vertical forces through the spine was achieved by the direction of the muscles’ work without inducing much movement of the vertebrae.

The pathologist explained that in order to create horizontal forces, (forward movement,) and vertical forces, (resistance to gravity and balance control), two muscles are needed, one acting horizontally and one acting vertically, or, a single muscle acting in an oblique manner. Such insertion allows the same muscle to create both horizontal and vertical forces. This is exactly how the fascicles of the main back muscles are oriented and function. This was the beginning of a long series of research aiming toward a functioning of the horse’s back muscles based on the subtle management of forces instead of increasing the movements of the vertebrae. This was 1969 and we were, at that time, already far away from the infantile idea that a single action such as lowering the neck could flex the whole thoracolumbar spine and also that gaits and performances can be improved by increasing the range of motion of the horse’s thoracolumbar column.

Rooney also questioned the veracity of the bow and string concept. As a pathologist, Rooney observed firsthand the discrepancy between the large mass and power of the back muscles and small mass and limited power of the abdominal muscles. We have recently published a picture showing a cut-away of the back muscles and by comparison a cut-away of the abdominal muscles executed at the same vertical plain. Rooney basically demonstrated that abdominal muscles do not have the capacity to flex the back muscles. Longitudinal flexion of the horse’s thoracolumbar spine is instead, created by the precise coordination of the main back muscles that are situated above the vertebral bodies.

Rooney’s work suggested that the contraction of abdominal muscles would assist the flexion of the back but not create it. Instead of lowering the horse’s neck and stimulating hind legs engagement, as suggested in the video, the flexion of the horse’s thoracolumbar column is more likely to occur through harmonic motion of the rider’s back influencing the work of the horse’s back muscles. Three and half decades later, uneducated trainers and riders are promoting the lowering of the neck as a new way to engage the horse’s back.

Even if equine research studies were brought to a complete halt, the practical application of available knowledge would considerably enhance the horse’s performances and in particular the horse’s soundness. Very few of today’s advanced scientific discoveries benefit the horse through better training and riding techniques. The reason is that instead of questioning old ideas in the light of new findings trainers, riders and judges are integrating new discoveries to old beliefs. Considering the cost of raising, maintaining and training a horse, it is incomprehensible that the practical application of modern science, which could greatly prolong and further the horse’s career, preserve the horse’s soundness and consequently cut the vet bills, is rejected in favor of archaic but familiar approaches.

In1976 was also when Hans Carlson demonstrated that the main function of the back muscles was not to increase the range of movement of the horse’s vertebral column, as suggested in the video as well as in the show ring, but at the contrary, to protect the vertebral column from movements exceeding the thoracolumbar spine’s possible range of motion. Uneducated riders argue that the study was made on cats. Carlson’s study was effectively effectuated on cats, which demonstrates in fact, that visual impressions can easily lead to the wrong perception. Multiple studies have then been done duplicating the same protocol and the findings were similar with horses and most terrestrial mammals. Basically, all the theories promoting better performances and gaits through stretching and greater amplitude of the horse’s vertebral column movements are in direct contradiction with the way the horse’s vertebral column and surrounding muscles are designed to work.

In 1980, Leo Jeffcott measured the range of possible movement of the horse’s vertebral column. Many studies after Jeffcott found differences in the location of vertebral column movements but they all found a limited range of motion. Basically, the back muscles do not increase the vertebral column range of movement but, at the contrary, resist forces induced on the horse’s vertebral column in order to maintain the vertebral column movements within the limits of its possible range of motion. This was 1980 and it was already demonstrated that theories such as the swinging back and stretching were in plain contradiction with the way the horse’s vertebral column and back muscles operate. At this point of knowledge, the thought that the horse’s thoracolumbar column was flexing longitudinally and laterally as a whole was totally blown away. All investigations clearly demonstrated that while greater movements were possible between T9 and mostly T14, while some horses show mobility until T16, the rest of the horse thoracolumbar spine was quite rigid. Movements occur but within the limits of a restricted ranged of motion.

In 1999, Jean Marie Denoix published a comprehensive study on the functioning of the horse’s vertebral column. Among the very pertinent discoveries was the way each vertebra rotates in relation to the other. Denoix’s research presented a work of the back muscles quite different than previously believed. Tucker for instance, theorized that lateral bending induced pressure on the inside side of the vertebrae. Denoix demonstrated that in fact lateral bending was created by a rotation of one vertebrae around the other. The French author was the first to present a comprehensive study about the fact that lateral bending is always coupled with a movement of transversal rotation and that rotation is, also, always associated with lateral bending.

In line with James Rooney, Denoix’s work demonstrated that gaits and performances were the outcome of back muscles creating and orchestrating forces instead of inducing greater range of motion of the vertebrae. Before the birth of the 21st century, scientific research had already demonstrated that all forms of equitation based on increasing the horse’s vertebral column range of motion was not only antiquated but contrary to the way the horse’s vertebral column effectively works.

2003 commenced better understanding of the plasticity of muscles’ function. Muscles’ architecture is now understood at a much deeper level. The involvement of the horse’s vertebral column into gaits and performances is more about muscles creating and orchestrating forces than muscles moving vertebrae. For centuries, horses have been forced to execute movements of the back that their vertebral column was not designed to create. In fact, they did not increase the range of motion of their vertebral column for the very simple reason that their vertebral column mechanism does not allow greater movement. Instead, they found ways to compensate for the incongruity of their riders’ demand. The best horses did not increase the amplitude of their vertebral column’s movement but instead, the subtle coordination of forces, giving to the rider an impression of ease that the rider interpreted as relaxation, stretching, swinging back and other misconceptions. Some horses have succeeded to figure, within the incoherency of the rider’s stimulus, how to orchestrate more or less appropriately their physique for the athletic demand of the performance. Many others have tried as hard as their talented peers but nature did not give them the same athletic and mental abilities and they succumbed to lameness.

One of the most common deceptions is the belief that the lowering of the neck flexes the lumbar vertebrae and increases their range of motion. The optical illusion was explained in 1986 by Jean Marie Denoix. The lowering of the neck reduces the mobility of the lumbar vertebrae. This is true for every horse. Stiffening of the lumbar vertebrae hampers proper dorso-ventral rotation of the pelvis and therefore sound kinematics of the hind legs. In order to compensate for the stiffening of the lumbar vertebrae, the horse increases the work of the iliopsoas muscles, which swings the hind limbs forward. Since the iliopsoas is placed under the lumbosacral junction, increased work of the iliopsoas muscle does induce greater rotation of the lumbosacral junction. This lumbosacral rotation does give the optical illusion that the whole lumbar region moves. In fact, the lumbar vertebrae do not flex. Instead, the horse compensates for the rigidity of the lumbar spine, that was created by the lowering of the neck, with greater intensity in the lumbosacral junction that is situated behind the lumbar vertebrae. The theories of relaxation, stretching and greater mobility of the vertebral column are naïve interpretations of a mechanism which in fact, is working exactly the opposite way.

Today’s knowledge allows returning the favor to the horse. The practical application of advanced scientific knowledge permits us to understand how the horse’s back effectively functions and how the rider can guide the horse’s brain toward efficient coordination of the vertebral column mechanism. This is done by reducing the range of motion of the rider’s back and matching the range of motion of the horse’s back. Through a subtle body language, the rider guides the horse’s brain toward the body coordination appropriate for the effort. This is classical training. At the 17th century The Duke of Newcastle already talked about the stability of the rider’s pelvis. The classic author uses the terms “unmovable pelvis.”

The practical application of pertinent scientific discoveries commences by questioning old theories in the light of new knowledge. It is astounding that instead of upgrading their training and riding techniques to the findings of modern research studies, trainers deliberately refuse new knowledge under the name of tradition. They submit their horses to the same incongruities and suffering as the horses of previous generations. It is equally astounding that riders follow and even protect these primitive ideas. Fortunately, there are also trainers who evolve, upgrading their techniques with true knowledge. In the same line of thought, there are riders who do not let their horses to be damaged by submissive and uneducated training techniques. One of the great horses that we have in training right now had the luck to belong to a rider who refused poor training techniques. The rider stood up for her horse and the horse, which was born as a good horse has evolved into a great horse.

We have today, the capacity to prepare efficiently the horse’s physique for the athletic demand of the performance. We owe this knowledge to the horse. Refusing progress and perpetuating old and heretic beliefs is not classic; it is archaic. If one wants to protect the horse from rollkur, draw reins, deep work and other exploitations, one needs to evolve from the common denominator of all these poor training techniques, which is ignorance. A real classic trainer learns how the horse’s body effectively works and then applies the motto of the most classical school of riding. “Respect for tradition should not prevent the love of progress.” (Colonel Danloux, Cadre Noir de Saumur, 1931)

Jean Luc Cornille

References:

- E. J. SLijper. Comparative biologic-anayomical investigations on the vertebral column and spinal muscles. Verhandelingen der kononklijke Nederlandsche Akademia van Wetenschappen, AFD, Natuurkunde. Tweede Sectie, deel XLII, #5

- Richard Tucker, Contribution to the Biomechanics of the vertebral column. Rotary system induced in the thoraco-lumbar curvature by the epacial musculature. Acta Theriologica, Vol. IX, 12: 171-193. Bialowieza. 30. XI. 1964

- James R. Rooney DVM, Biomechanics of lameness in horses. The William and Wilkins company, Baltimore, 1969

- Hans Carlson, Halbertsma J. and Zomlefer, M. 1979, Control of the trunk during walking in the cat. Acta physiol. Scand. 105, 251-253

- Leo B. Jeffcott, Natural Rigidity of the horse’s backbone, 1980. Equine vet J. 1980, 12 (3) , 101-108

- Jean Marie Denoix, DVM. PhD, Spinal Biomechanics and Functional Anatomy, 1999

2011-12-01T08:40:00.000-08:00

Educate your Eye

Shoulder in executed in hand with correct and inverted rotation.

Even if the concept of rotation associated with lateral bending has been clearly explained in 1999 with Jean Marie Denoix’s magisterial work, the concept remains foreign to judging standards and most training techniques. The concept is important to know; proper or inverted rotation is often the difference between good and poor performance as well as soundness or limbs injuries and back issues. In practically all the rehabilitations that we have completed, the subject of inverted rotation was part of the problem.

The first picture series shows right shoulder in and then right turn, executed in hand with correct rotation. The direction of the rotation is illustrated by a white arrow. At the second frame, Chazot is putting some weight on the bit while lowering the neck. The gesture increases the load on the forelegs. Chazot is then almost associating right lateral bending and inverted rotation. Fortunately, His mind was on the correct coordination and the fault lasts only one frame. He corrects himself at the next frame.

Correct Shoulder In

Right laterial bending coupled with correct rotation

Incorrect Shoulder In

Right laterial bending coupled with inverted rotation

The second picture series shows right shoulder in executed in hand and coupled with inverted rotation. The direction of the rotation is illustrated with a red arrow. The good thing with chazot is that he never does anything half way. He is trying to put some weight on the bit and the rotation become worse each step. Right shoulder in and therfore right laterial bending coupled with inverted rotation clearly shift the weight on the horse's left shoulder.

In fact the series presented first as the good rotation is the continuation of this bad series. Chazot recovered his balance and was able to come back with the correct coordination between lateral bending and proper rotation.

One may ask how inverted rotation does feel. The feeling is easy to recreate. One just has to halt the horse on the rail keeping the horse’ vertebral column straight and bending the horse neck laterally toward the inside of the ring, at an angle of about 90°. As the horse bends the neck, the rider will be shifted toward the outside of the horse’s back and on the outside seat bone. This is the feeling of inverted rotation.

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2011-10-30T20:44:00.001-07:00

Response to the waspish ghosts of theological thinking.

(IX)

Lateral bending and transversal rotation

Part 2

In response to an extensive reaction on facebook, we are furthering the discussion about transversal rotation. We are amazed by the fact that the phenomenon was, until we published it, foreign to most riders and trainers. Without a sound understanding of the rotation associated with lateral bending there is no way to properly ride or train the shoulder in or the half pass or the flying change. Collection in front of a jump as well as the ability to turn sharply at the landing is related to the horse’s ability to properly coordinate lateral bending and transversal rotation. In terms of therapy, the phenomenon is even more important. All the cases of kissing spine that we have rehabilitated were for a great part the result of inverted rotation. I guess a few skilled riders have intuitively figured out the correlation without been able to explain it. Undoubtedly, a very large number of talented riders could have furthered their horse’s performances, encountered much less difficulties, and prevented injuries if the knowledge had been made available to them.

The most comprehensive study is certainly the work of Jean Marie Denoix, which has been published in 1999 (1). However, the presence of transversal rotations in the horse’s vertebral column was already reported in 1964. “Transversal forces are permanent components of the work of the vertebral column and are resisted by the strong development of the articular processes of the vertebrae. For this reason, they are strongly developed in terrestrial mammals but reduce or absent in fish where gravitational forces are unimportant.” (2)

The thought that the ribs are part of the mechanism resisting gravity forces is now the subject of renewed interest. Recent observations in different necropsy rooms have noticed bony developments on the upper end of the ribs where the processes are articulated with the vertebrae. The deposits appear to be responding to stresses. There is not yet a clear explanation but several pathologists, include Dr. Betsy Uhl who is going to give a talk at our November Immersion Program, are working on the observation.

Tucker completed in 1964, the first dynamic analysis of the horse’s vertebral column. Beside the presence of transversal forces, Polish scientists demonstrated that forward movements and performances were not created through relaxation of the back muscles and greater amplitude of the vertebral column movement, but through resistance of the back muscles which maintains the movements of the thoracolumbar spine within the limits of its possible range of motion. “Since all movements have a rotary action, the vertebral column is constantly subjected to rotary forces. These are applied to each of the vertebral components of the column and it is the constant task of the epaxial musculature to counteract the effects of these rotational forces”(3) Without this understanding, a rider cannot efficiently influence and modify these transversal rotations. Astoundingly, judging standards, most training techniques, and forums on the internet, are still promoting relaxed and swinging motions of the horse’s vertebral column.

On this picture,

left lateral bending is coupled with proper rotation, (left side of the picture), and inverted rotation, (right side of the picture).

We place then a rider’s skeleton on a horse combining left lateral bending and inverted rotation. The rider’s skeleton is then shifted toward the outside of the bend.

Dressing the skeleton into a modern rider exposes even further the visual impression created by inverted rotation.

The female rider on right side illustrates the direction of the inverted rotation shifting the rider toward the outside of the bend. By comparison the silhouette on the left side of the picture illustrates half pass combining left later bending and correct rotation.

Judges are not trained to distinguish correct from inverted rotation. Therefore, judging standards reward indiscriminately a dysfunctional athlete and a properly trained horse. The difference is that the dysfunctional horse will have to have most of the cartilage of his body regularly injected while the horse properly coordinated will remain drug free and sound.

Lateral bending as well as transversal rotations occurs mostly between the 9th and 14th thoracic vertebrae, which is exactly between the rider’s upper thighs. The rider’s pelvis and thighs are therefore at the best place to create lateral bending of the horse’s thoracic spine associated with correct rotation. However, concepts such as the driving seat do not permit proper control of the horse’s thoracolumbar spine. There is no doubt that the waspish ghosts of theological thinking are now exchanging frantic e-mails convincing themselves that their deep seat is right and my lines are wrong. This is why ghosts will always remain ghosts. They cannot be wrong and therefore, they cannot evolve. Their so-called in depth discussions are in fact diatribes around elementary details quickly turning into an anthology to their incommensurable ego.

We place the ghost picture on the right side of the page,

so hopefully, the horse’s momentum will pull him or her out of the picture and we can continue this discussion between real riders. The main back muscles are set in mirror image directions and therefore, any shift of the rider’s weight is disturbing the horse’s ability to synchronize the work of his back muscles. Back and forth oscillations of the rider’s pelvis in the saddle are creating serious weight disturbances, shifting the rider’s weight back to front and front to back. Efficient equitation commences with a stable pelvis.

The concept of a stable pelvis is not new. In the 17th century, Duke William Cavendish of Newcastle (1593-1676) promoted the need for a stable pelvis and upper thighs. The British gentleman even uses the term “immovable” pelvis. “A rider’s body should be divided in three parts, two of which are mobile and one which is not. The first of the two movable parts is the body down to the waist; the other is the leg from the knee downward. Therefore, the immovable part of the body is from the waist to the knees.” Newcastle did not know that the horse’s back muscles were arranged in opposite directions but he had enough feeling and intuition to realize that shifts of the rider’s weight were hampering the horse’s ability to control balance.

The first description of the main back muscles was made in 1946 by the Dutch scientist E. J. Slijper. This illustration is copied from Slijper’s book, Comparative biologic-anatomical investigations on the vertebral column and spinal musculature of Mammals.

As today, only 18 books remain in circulation in the world and we have been lucky enough to copy one of them. Slijper only describes in this illustration the design of the longissimus dorsi muscles. Instead of long bungee cords, as often described, the longissimus dorsi are in fact several muscles aligned in line and composed of fascicles oriented forward and downward. The fascicles bridge about 3 to 5 vertebrae. By contrast, the fascicles of the multifidius muscles are oriented in the opposite direction, and therefore backward and downward. One can visualize the opposite orientation of the main back muscles on this picture. The fascicles of the longissimus system are illustrated in red while the fascicles of the multifidius muscles are represented in green.

However, in reality the muscles are very thick and difficult to distinguish. Illustrations always present a clean and sterile picture. The reality is more complex. The perspective given in the necropsy room is that these muscles are so deeply interrelated that it would be impossible to discriminate them, or to act separately on one without influencing the other. The second impression is that the movements of the horse’s vertebral column are even less than experimental measurements like to suggest. The reason is that measurements are executed when all the back muscles have been removed.

The point is that since the main back muscles are set and act in opposite directions, any shift of the rider’s weight will stimulate one muscle group over the other. The problem is that the muscular coordination allowing the horse to resist gravity and consequently to control balance, demands a precise and simultaneous work of both muscles’ group. Newcastle was right when he advised an immovable pelvis. By contrast, in the matter of back muscles and proper work of the biomechanics of the horse’s vertebral column, principles of modern riding emphasizing relaxation and therefore large oscillations of the rider’s back are off. Back and forth oscillations of the rider’s pelvis induce forces acting back to front and front to back on the horse’s back muscles. These forces are altering the horse’s ability to properly coordinate the work of his back muscles.

In fact, both the French and the German schools are pushing with the seat, which is questionable in the light of actual knowledge of the horse’s back muscles structure. With his immovable pelvis, Newcastle was closer to actual knowledge of the equine physiology than are contemporary schools of thought. The French school is about lightness on the bit. The German school emphasizes firmer contact. Great riders of both schools are not pulling back on the reins. They might resist and eventually filter the weight exerted by the horse on the bit but they do not pull backward on the reins. Instead, bad riders do, applying to the letter the sally “push and pull.”

In order to efficiently influence lateral bending of the horse’s thoracolumbar spine, the rider needs to be in neutral balance, which means that the rider needs to be exactly vertical over his or her seat bones. Of course, since the seat bones are only offering two points of support, the gluteus muscles of the fannies and the inward muscles of the upper thighs are involved, stabilizing the rider’s seat. The alignment of the rider’s vertebral column is equally important. The S curve of the rider’s spine needs to be held as straight as it is physically comfortable for the rider to hold it. The S shape of the rider’s spine will remains an S shape but closer to a straight line than a pronounced S shape. The best description of the rider’s vertebral column alignment and functioning belongs to Valdemar Seunig. “The subtle S-curve of the spine allows the spine to oscillate minutely, a movement so tiny that it is hardly perceptible to the naked eye, producing a “soft” seat. This “soft seat” differs fundamentally from a “doughy” seat, in which we find a spine that is too flexible and allowed to undulate freely in response to the horse’s movement.” The art of riding, which is the rider’s ability to prepare efficiently the horse’s physique for the athletic demand of the performance, does not belong to the German school over the French and vice versa but instead to the understanding of the best riders’ findings in the light of actual knowledge of the equine physiology.

Above all, there is a dynamic phenomenon, which can be defined as the center of rotation and that needs to be addressed. The rider can have the shoulders at the vertical of the seat bones but collapsing the vertebral column backward, or holding the vertebral column too arched as hunter jumper riders tend to do. Both forms of equitation hamper the horse’s ability to master balance control. Collapsing the vertebral column backward as in a bracing position is inducing a force acting back to front on the horse’s back muscles. By contrast, arching the back excessively is inducing a force acting front to back on the horse’s back muscles. In both cases, the influence of the rider’s weight is complicating the horse’s task, which is precise coordination and simultaneous work of muscles set in opposite direction.

To understand the concept of the center of rotation, one may watch a cat falling.

The cat creates a center of rotation in the middle of his spine around which the cat turns the front and back part of his body and lands on his legs. The junction between the natural kyphosis of the rider’s thoracic spine and the natural lordosis of the rider’s lumbar vertebrae can be considered as an axis of rotation around which the rider articulates his or her vertebral column. For example, if the rider flattens the lumbar vertebrae using the spaos muscles, compensation needs to be made advancing slightly the thoracic vertebrae between the shoulder blades. Acting this way, the rider is capable of constantly maintaining the center of rotation of his or her spine exactly at the vertical of the seat bones. This allows a real neutral balance, which means a body weight acting vertically on the horse’s spine and therefore avoiding all nuisances caused by a body weight acting front to back or back to front.

Theologians are going to object vehemently because they know the words but they have not pushed their equitation or their understanding of the equine physiology very far. The practical application of knowledge is not about words but instead, riding skill, feeling, extensive experience, and an absolute desire to educate the horse as efficiently as knowledge permits instead of submitting the horse to a doctrine. Interestingly, as I was evolving in my own equitation, the French school was considering that I had a very classical French seat and the first thing German riders told me when I went to Germany to understand the German approach, was that I had a German seat…

Influencing lateral bending and transversal rotation of the horse’s thoracolumbar column is very easy. One simply has to face right with the pelvis and upper body in order to bend the horse’s thoracic spine to the right, or facing left with the pelvis and upper body in order to bend the horse’s thoracic vertebrae to the left. For instance, as the rider’s pelvis, back and shoulders are facing right, the rider’s inside leg is acting as a reference around which the horse is bending the spine. The reference of the rider’s inside leg is mostly created by the contact of the inward upper thigh on the saddle and the calf touching the horse’s body.

However, without a seat exactly in balance over the seat bones, the technique does not work. Both sides of the rider’s back, the pelvis and the inward upper thighs need to work together. The horse does feel the rotation of the pelvis through the light pressure exerted by the outside thigh on the saddle. The rider’s rotation induces transversal rotation of the horse’s dorsal spine toward the inside of the bend, which produces lateral bending. “In the cervical and thoracic vertebral column, rotation is always coupled with lateroflexion and vice versa. In the thoracic spine, as is the case during lateroflexion, the spinous processes bend in the concavity.”(4) Efficient equitation is not about submitting the horse to the rider’s aids but instead, proper riding is about inviting the horse to dance. The first condition is evidently to dance the same dance.

Prior this knowledge, riding principles emphasized the thought that advancing the rider’s inside hip toward he horse’s vertebral column would induces lateral bending of the horse’s thoracic spine around the rider’s inside hip. This theory is no longer acceptable since the move stimulates a rotation toward the outside of the bend and therefore, inverted rotation. Dancing the same dance, commences with a sound understanding of the horse locomotion.

The study of biomechanics is about understanding how forces interact and stress the structures. When two biomechanical entities, the horse and the rider, are working together, obedience to the rider’s aids is almost an insult to the intelligence of both, the horse and the rider. Efficient equitation occurs at a much more sophisticated level. If the rider is using his or her physique in respect of proper functioning of the horse’s physique, there is no resistance from the horse. There might be faults or difficulties which result from the horse’s muscular imbalance, weaknesses or inadequate body coordination. It belongs then to the rider’s analytic capacities to figure the root cause.

If the rider is properly balanced over the seat bones, if the rider’s weight distribution is equal on both seat bones, turning the back, pelvis and thighs to the right invites the horse to bend the thoracic spine to the right. This is not submission, this is dance. The horse bends the thoracic spine simply because like the rider, the horse likes to move in harmony. Instead, if the rider is seat mostly on his or her gluteus muscles loading the back part of the saddle and holding the knees against humongous knee pads, the rotation of the pelvis induce a series of weight shifts that are totally incomprehensive for the horse. For instance, if the rider is seat too far back on the fannies, the rotation of the pelvis to the right demands an elevation of the left hip and therefore a loading of the right seat bone which pushes the rotation of the horse’s thoracic spine toward the outside of the bend. The rider stimulates then inverted rotation. Showing ignorance of the vertebral column mechanism, there are school of thoughts which emphasize loading the inside seat bone.

Basically, the rider influences the horse’s thoracic spine with the seat and the cervical spine, the neck, with the hands. Lateral bending of the thoracic spine can easily be disturbed by excessive bending of the neck. The so-called safety rein, which was referred to at the beginning of this discussion, emphasizes intense lateral bending of the neck. This form of riding is about submitting the horse to cues without the most elementary understanding of the horse’s locomotor system and vertebral column mechanism. In the same line of severe ignorance are training systems emphasizing bending the horse’s thoracolumbar spine through bending of the neck.

It is obvious that if the horse has been educated through old theories or rein effects, significant asymmetries between right and left side may already exist. In such case, the horse may respond easily to the rider’s suggestion on one side and have more difficultly, or do not respond at all on the other side. Appropriated re-education is necessary. This cannot be treated in two lines. It is the subject of another installment. This is also a subject of the Immersion Programs that we are running at the Science of Motion’s training center. The programs are designed to provide advanced knowledge of the equine physiology and how to apply such knowledge. The first aim is to give to the rider the capacity to discriminate theories unrelated to the horse’s biological mechanism and working hypothesis respecting the horse’s physique.

Jean Luc Cornille

References,

-(1) (4) (Spinal Biomechanics and Functional Anatomy, 1999)

-(2) (3)(Richard Tucker, Biomechanical Characteristics of the thoraco-lumbar Curvature. ACTA THEORIOLOGICA. Vol. VIII, 3: 45-72, Bialowieza, 15.X.1964)

2011-10-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Part VII

Response to the waspish ghosts of theological thinking.

Part VII

“Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler.” (Albert Einstein)

http://www.scienceofmotion.com/part_vii.html

Equestrian theories are for a great part simpler, the safety rein, half halt, stretching of the neck, side reins, legs without hands and hands without legs, etc. etc. These theories came with the label scientifically proved, which means that partial scientific findings have been distorted to accredit the theory. In a recent talk, epidemiologist Ben Goldacre denounced as bad science, the misrepresentations or convenient omissions that food industries and others, including the equestrian industry, are using to sell their products.

When in the history of riding a theologian came up with the theory, legs without hands and hands without legs, the thought was based on simplistic thinking and complete ignorance of the fact than any complex living organism, such as the horse, is composed of systems within a system within a system. The Dopeys of the equestrian world emphasized the superficial results. They totally ignored the chain reaction from which superficial to microscopic level is going to efficiently orchestrate the horse’s physique, thereby leaving potentially crippling effects.

A rein action that may appear efficient at one level may induce adverse and damaging effects at a deeper level. The so-called safety reinfor instance, promises control by bending the horse’s neck intensively. Promoters never talk about both the physical and mental damages that the rein action is causing. Whether their omission is directed by plain or convenient ignorance, the damages are abnormally stressing the horse’s physique.

In this rubric, we refer to theologians of the equestrian world as Ghosts, because they live in an unreal world. The prefix waspish refers to the ghosts’ nastiness. Their equestrian theories are off of reality but their egos do not allow them to look for more intelligent and efficient approaches. Their energy is then concentrated on proving that they are right and criticizing anyone who does not venerate them. Look very much like fanatic religions does it not?

Since, like humans, horses suffer from bad science and benefit from real science, we are going to expose through this rubric and in the light of most recent scientific discoveries, the side and hidden effects of simpler theories starting with the safety rein as well as every lateral bending of the neck achieved through reins effects.

“In the cervical and thoracic vertebral column, rotation is always coupled with lateroflexion and vice versa.” (Jean Marie Denoix, 1999). In the horse’s thoracolumbar column, transversal rotations occur mostly in the vicinity of the 9th to 14th thoracic vertebrae but do have an effect on the whole thoracolumbar spine. Transversal rotations can be proper, enhancing the horse’s performances, or inverted, hampering the horse’s ability to move and perform efficiently.

Bending the neck by pulling on the inside rein does induce inverted rotation. Beside shifting the weight on the outside shoulder and therefore altering proper kinematics of the outside foreleg, the inverted rotation induces abnormal stresses on the vertebral structures. A horse, like a human, is inherently asymmetrical. Rotations are therefore always preferential one direction over the other. If not addressed by the training approach, and if aggravated by the riding technique, the imbalance between right and left rotation evolves rapidly into handicapping dysfunction.

This specimen is the thoracolumbar column of a 10 year old horse. Even if relatively young, the horse’s thoracolumbar spine is severely crooked. With all the muscles removed, the thoracolumbar spine lays twisted on the table. The thoracolumbar spine is laterally bent to the left and the lateral bending is coupled with an inverted rotation. For reference, the color picture shows the proper correlation between left lateral bending and correct rotation.

The specimen was clearly crooked and it was impossible to illicit any right lateral bending. However, before becoming a specimen, this thoracolumbar column belonged to a live horse. Perhaps it would be enlightening to envision how a horse with such crookedness would be able to deal with the rein action illustrated earlier. As a horse can easily bend the neck without bending the thoracolumbar spine, the horse would probably comply to the rein action bending the neck to the right. However, incapable of bending the thoracic spine into the same direction, the horse would do what every horse is doing. He would execute the performance protecting his muscular imbalance.

In this specific case, left lateral bending is associated with inverted rotation shifting the dorsal spines to the right. In the scientific world such rotation is referred to as left rotation because the ventral part of the vertebral bodies is facing left. Right lateral bending of the thoracic spine is difficult to execute with such inclinations of the dorsal spines. The only way the horse could do it would be stiffening the whole thoracic spine and rushing forward, leaning heavily on the right shoulder. Maybe the horse attempted such a solution and was punished for his behavior.

Perhaps, the horse was capable of correcting somewhat the transversal rotation, placing his dorsal spines into a more vertical position. According to the difficulty that the horse would encounter doing such adjustment, the correction would either allow a light right lateral bending of the thoracic vertebrae or, to the contrary, an intense protective reflex contraction of the surrounding muscles stiffening the thoracic spine. Very likely, the horse’s disobedience would be treated by further bending the neck inducing greater pain.

One can easily predict that the so-called safety rein applied on this horse would likely stimulate a violent protective reflex contraction, thereby questioning the concept of safeness associated with the intense lateral bending of the neck. Believers will argue that the specimen presented here is a rare exception. Unfortunately it is not. Three specimens were presented one week later in the same necropsy room. They all presented the same level of thoracolumbar torsion, two specimens were twisted to the right and one was cocked to the left. In fact, when a horse is said to travel with the haunches to the left, or canter with the haunches to the inside, or is dropping the right shoulder, or does not like the right lead canter, or many other issues, the horse’s thoracolumbar spine likely is twisted as much or even more than the specimen presented in this discussion.

The horse’s vertebral column is often described as the axis of motion. The limbs are situated on each side of the spine and the thrust generated by the hind legs is transmitted forward through the column. Both hind and front legs induce oblique forces on the thoracolumbar spine which tends to bend the column laterally. The front legs bend the thoracic spine and the hind legs induce lateral bending in the lumbar spine. The lumbar vertebrae have very little capacity of lateral bending, so the hind legs' actions influence lateral bending of the thoracic vertebrae. Basically, alternative lateral bending of the thoracolumbar column are synchronized with the hind and front limbs action. However, without proportional resistance of the back muscles, the hind and front limbs would induce sideway motion of the spine and very little forward movement. The main function of the back muscles is therefore not to increase lateral and transversal movements of the thoracolumbar column but instead reduce these movements through supple resistance. As the speed increases, the resistance of the back muscles further stiffens the vertebral column. Hence, any asymmetry between left and right lateral bending and rotation alters the kinematics of the hind and front legs. The irrational and in fact damaging effect of simpler riding techniques creates inverted rotation and therefore aggravates natural back muscles’ imbalance.

A German proverb says, “Even the lion has to defend himself against flies.” Any crookedness of the thoracolumbar spine renders forward movement uncomfortable for the horse. Even the more willing athlete has to protect himself from physical discomfort. Difficulties to perform, frustration, anger, protective reflex contraction, result from uneasiness. Instead of being interpreted as behavior issues, these reactions need to be treated as outcome of a dysfunctional physique trying to cope with physical distress.

Bending the neck of a young horse is a disastrous lesson. The spine is the axis of motion. Inducing greater lateral bending of the cervical vertebrae, (the neck,) than the thoracic vertebrae, breaks the vertebral column alignment shifting the weight to the outside shoulder. It does not take long for a horse to learn the lesson. If the horse is confused or uncomfortable with forward motion, he will apply the lesson by over bending the neck and shifting his body sideways.

The ones who promote lateral bending of the neck have not thought their theories through beyond the superficial level. The horse does not work at the superficial level. All living creatures are composed of tiers of systems within a system within a system. Most of the systems are not directly controlled by the rider, but the cascade of reactions can be directed either toward proper efficient physical coordination or physical dysfunction.

Simple is knowledge and clarity in the understanding of complex mechanisms. Simpler is dumb

(The next installment will be about Half Halt.)

2011-10-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

The Horse | Rood & Riddle To Host Gastroscopy Event Oct. 18

2011-09-17T11:17:00.000-07:00

ThoughtsXI

(Sorry to burst your bubble but that is not piaff)

by Chazot

Often at the end of the day, Helyn and he bring out two chairs and drinks and sit between Manchester’s pasture and my turn out and watch us. This is a time of peace where we all enjoy each other’s company. Even the kissing machine is resting. Bretelle is a boxer with a tongue longer than his body. He is the gentlest dog on earth but he always tries to kiss us. You cannot imagine the length of his tongue. I lift my nose a few inches thinking that I am out of reach and within the next second I have half of his tongue deep inside my nostril.Sometimes, Helyn and he are engaged in a long conversation. Other times they stay silent listening and watching. Yesterday, Helyn brought a photo that she took earlier during our training session. She walked toward me showing the picture. I remember the trot departure. I felt I was in good balance and succeeded in a departure quite collected. noticed the position of my legs on the picture thinking that it almost looks like piaff. This is when hethinks, Sorry to burst your bubble but that is not piaff.

I was shocked. I am supposed to be the one who can read his thoughts. He is not supposed to know mine. I knew that this was not piaff. I was simply playing the game of many riders who are using pictures, which look like piaff to burst their ego. Mostly to verify if he really can read my thoughts I pushed the issue insisting that may be it was not a true piaff but it was close.He scared me, as he thought, “Not even close. The picture was taken at a good time and your legs may appear to be doing piaff but the synchronization of your back and legs is not correct. Your supporting hind leg is on the pushing phase. If you were at the piaff, it would be in the braking phase. I said to Manchester, he really knows what I think. Manchester disagreed. I don’t think so. He does not even believe in animal communicators. Your former owner was a so-called animal communicator and she never had any clue of your emotions, suffering and thinking. Let me tell you what I think is happening. My belief is that when his brain is on a subject, he explores further and further. I think that he is following his own thoughts and it just happens that his thoughts appear to answer your questions. In fact; I see there the potential for some juicy exchanges. Ask him about subjects unrelated to horses.

I asked then, what do you think about the catwalk of fashion show models. His thought was, bad judges can only see the legs action. They cannot see higher. They do not understand the biomechanics of the vertebral column. Manchester and I smiled thinking this one was not too bad. As he was thinking about the riders during piaff, I asked, what do you think about the members of congress? “They shake their butt back and forth to keep the momentum going. If they were using their brains instead, the performances would be much better.”Manchester and I were now laughing. This one was not bad at all. He was thinking about training techniques activating the horses’ hind legs with a dressage whip and I asked, what about the tea party? “You can brandish a long whip as much as you want, this does not awaken a dead brain.” Manchester was ecstatic. Then I asked, what about the horse whisperers? “It is always the ones who are doing the worse things behind the curtain that are presenting themselves as sweet and compassionate.” Manchester and I decided that this one was not humoristic but dead accurate. I tried French politics. [Image]What do you think about the wife of the French president? “Beautiful.” I froze then started to sweat. I told Manchester, this was a not coincidence. This was a direct answer to my question. Manchester told me Look, he is looking at his wife.

The next day, we had one of these interesting sessions that demands high concentration and muscular work. Shortly after his arrival, Manchester commented on one of these sessions. I don’t understand why you sweat so much, you were doing nothing. You were going slowly at the walk and at the trot. There was no half pass, no shoulder in or medium trot. The whole session was boring to observe. It was like watching the grass growing. I remember that I was annoyed and decided that he needed a strong repartee. Listen to me miniature horse, you are not going to execute compulsories with a dysfunctional body. You are not going to run through the ring, completely off balance over your front legs and leaning heavily on the rider’s hands. You are not going to be submitted to meaningless cues such as half halt. Instead, you are going to learn the mastery of balance. You are going to learn how to control accelerations of gravity and other forces through your vertebral column and limbs kinematics. You are going to learn the athletic angle of balance and body control. You are not going to repeat movements until your body is properly coordinated for the effort. You are going to become a functional athlete. You are going to use your physique like you never did before and this is why you will be sound for the first time in your life. Manchester stayed silent for a while.

Later, he came back to the subject adding, In my world it was all about executing the movements. No one ever considered how our physique was supposed to be coordinated for the move. I told him, in my racetrack world, it was even worse. Often I wonder if they were the same human species. We used to call them Homo-retractus. They are smaller and they retract their legs like cats retract their claws. When they walk, their legs have normal length but they retract them when they ride. Basically our education was about exploiting our talent without much consideration and study about how our physique does produce speed.

They push us to go faster and faster until we break down. In fact, even when we break down they continue to push us. Early in my training, I had a fracture of the posterior lateral wing of my coffin bone. They did not explore the thought that I was too tall and too heavy for speed. They gave me some rest and restart again. This was the thought that crossed immediately his mind whenhe saw me for the first time. This is when I realized that I was able to read his thoughts. He looked at me from the side thinking what the hell are those people thinking? How could they even imagine that a horse with such size and mass could be successful on the racetrack? He must have enormous growing issues. He does not have the muscular development to deal with his mass. I wonder how he managed to remain sound. I liked him for that. It was the first time someone had some empathy for my physical difficulties. Everybody else was criticizing me and punishing me for my lack of performance.

I remember that later, he sat on the grass next to me as I was taking a nap. He was reading a study about speed on the racetrack. At speed, better horses have two fly periods during a canter stride. [Image]A normal canter stride is traditionally outside hind leg first. Then comes the diagonal sequence, inside hind leg and outside foreleg, which is followed by the support of the inside foreleg and up into the fly period. Better horses add a second fly period during the diagonal sequence, between the impact of the inside hind leg and ground contact of the outside foreleg. There are even exceptional horses which add a third fly period between support of the outside foreleg and alighting of the inside foreleg. He was thinking, how could we educate a horse to develop a second fly period during the diagonal sequence? The fact is that if such education was possible, racehorses could go faster. He developed in his mind a working hypothesis where it would be possible to create the phenomenon. But he dismissed the thought thinking that while possible such education would require too much time and knowledge. The racing industry is about quick money.

I started to realize the extent of his work. Scientific studies do not come as formulas ready to be applied.

He summarizes quite well the problem referring to the concept of ease. He often states, If the horse is properly coordinated for the effort, the performance is effortless, starting with the gaits. If the rider struggles while sitting the horse’s trot, the horse is not properly coordinated for the trot. The horse is controlling balance using the braking phase of the front legs instead of their upward propulsive activity. I experienced this phenomenon yesterday. He was away for four days and my exuberance became out of control, I rolled frantically hurting my spine in the cranial thoracic area. It was a little uncomfortable but I did not realize how much I overdid until he rode me. His weight on my back awakened the muscular pain and when he asked me to trot for the warm up, I tried to use the effect of my nuchal ligament I lowered the neck pushing on the bit. Doing so, my nuchal ligament exerted a pull on the dorsal spines of my whither. This creates a lift of the whither area but also a rotation that is shifting the weight over the forelegs. I was too heavy on the forehand and when I went into the trot, I controlled my balance braking with the forelegs instead of propelling my body upward. It was quite uncomfortable. He halted me immediately realizing that I had a muscular issue. The rest of the training session became a physical therapy session designed to release the tension of my back muscles. It took a little more than 30 minutes at the walk but he worked my body until the muscle spasm vanished. We went then for another 30 minute walk outside.

He never let me trot heavy on the forehand and leaning on the bit, so I forgot how uncomfortable the trot can be when I am not properly coordinated for the effort. I feel great since. I had a comfortable night in my thick layer of shavings and today I was capable to further the coordination of my back muscles. Maybe I need to explain to you how this technique works from my perspective.

First of all, he never disturbs my back muscles shifting his body weight back to front or front to back. I do appreciate his stability. When the rider shifts his or her body weight back to front or front to back, the rider movements disturb our vertebral column mechanism. [Image]We then have great difficulties to properly coordinate the action of our back muscles which are situated in mirror image directions. Our capacity to resist gravity and therefore achieve balance control demands precise coordination of these muscles down to the fascicles that compose these muscles.

The second point is that when we are working at the walk or the trot or at the canter, his vertebral column barely moves. I do appreciate the moderated range of motion of his vertebral column because his movements are in harmony with my range of motion. Especially in the dorso-ventral direction, my vertebral column does have a very limited range of motion. He seems to have understood the phenomenon since his vertebral column moves within the same range of motion as mine. Basically, we are dancing the same subtle and discreet dance.Then, he asks me to refine my straightness. I mean more straight than straight. A better description would be that he asks me to move within the limits of a very narrow corridor. This demands a very sophisticated body control. At the walk as well as at the trot, our vertebral column executes alternative lateral bending which are synchronized with the legs actions. In fact, our limbs are creating lateral bending of our spine and our spine is controlling and even resisting this lateral flexion in order to convert the thrust generated by the hind legs into forward movement. The faster we go the more we need to reduce those lateral flexions. Any lateral flexion is always coupled with a movement of transversal rotation, which occurs in the first half of our thoracic vertebrae. Transversal rotation induces longitudinal flexion and this is how it works. He is asking me to move so straight that I have to reduce the amplitude of my vertebral column’s lateral bending. The most efficient way for me to do that is to increase the longitudinal flexion of my spine. You have to understand that I am here describing what I am doing in terms of kinematics, which is the geometry of movements, when in fact I am working at a dynamic level. I am controlling, redirecting and modifying forces. The problem is that it is difficult to describe forces with words. When I say longitudinal flexion of my spine, naïve equitation thinks about a vertebral column becoming round like an arc. In fact, the geometry of my vertebral column barely changes. What I am doing is converting the thrust that I produce with my hind legs into horizontal forces, which are basically forward movement, and vertical forces that are allowing greater balance control.

I did not immediately figure this advanced way to coordinate my vertebral column mechanism. I first responded through natural reflexes. I rushed forward, I leaned on the bit, I moved my shoulders sideways, I shifted my croup to the right or to the left. He quietly asked me the same question; can you move straight, slowly, maintaining some activity of the hind legs without leaning on the bit. In fact he was using my errors to provide me more accurate insights. He helped me by guiding my brain toward the most efficient coordination of my vertebral column mechanism. Every time I feel simultaneously great control and great ease, he rewarded me. I already knew that I was good because it was effortless for me. His reward was simply reinforcing a feeling that I already liked. I am glad that he did not rush me forward. It would have been very difficult for me to concentrate and explore my own body beyond the limits of my natural reflexes if I had to deal with very strong activity of my hind legs. However, he is now asking me to maintain such advance control while increasing the propulsive activity of my hind and front legs.

In fact today, it was a moment where I was feeling such an easy control of my balance and power than I wanted to pick up the trot and show him how close I was to the piaff. Instead heasked me for a square halt. He patted me and let me walk on long reins. His thought was then, You know, during this last coordination that you put together before we stopped, you were much closer to the piaff than you were when you were shaking your legs in cadence.
Chazot Edited by Susan HopfAuthor Jean Luc Cornille copyright 2011 all rights reserved References(1) www.scienceofmotion.com

(Tensegrity and mechanoregulation: from skeleton to cytoskeleton, Christopher S. Chen and Donald E. Ingber, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 1999. &, 81-94)-94)

2011-09-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

Thoughts V

by Jean Luc Cornille 2011

www.scienceofmotion.com

Active learning emphasizes the positive effect of individual control over learning. For instance while the driver of a car may easily remember directions, (active learning,) it might be difficult for the passenger to learn a route, (passive learning). I have to say that when I am in the trailer, I never remember the route. In fact, he does not either, even when he is driving. Once, he loaded me in the trailer, drove 15 or 20 minutes and stopped practically at the same spot in the farm that we were when we started. He tried to say that this was a loading exercise but I believe that he was just lost.

Sometimes, he comes in the barn with his laptop, sits in front of my stall door and works on a study. I was looking over his shoulder and read, hippocampal. In French language, a hippocampe is a seahorse. Then I read volition, and I was deeply puzzled. Why is he reading a study about a seahorse playing the violin? I realized then that I was thinking like a typical horse person. I was not reading to further my knowledge, I was reading to find confirmation of what I believe. I was critical of every word or thought that I was not familiar with. The study was about humans’ and animals’ brain learning process. The hippocampal is a part of the brain involved in memory encoding andvolition is about voluntary control in the process of learning.

After the first page, my brain was swelling and I decided that it was time for me to munch a little bit of hay. I noticed that the fingers of his left hand were pressing against his left temple. Usually, he does that when he is highly concentrated. I know this because he does that when I puzzle him during a training session. He ended his reading thinking, whoa! Even for animals, volitional control benefits memory performance. Now he was telling me, do you know that engaging your intelligence instead of seeking obedience increases your learning capacity by 22%. I told you; sometimes he really annoys me. Of course I know that I learn faster when he stimulates my mental involvement. This is the way we work together everyday! Then, he literally verbalized my thoughts, “I know that this is exactly how we are working together every day, but this is now scientifically explained”.

In the protocol of the scientific experiment, a different approach referred to as deterministic, was more like submitting us to a system such as the order of priorities emphasized into the pyramid of training. Such an approach did not enhance memory performance. In fact, I doubt there is even one single horse in the world that would agree with the fact that imposing a given order of priorities, such as forward before balance, collection before straightness and so on, would accomplish anything other than to lead us into our grave rather than all the way to the top of the pyramid.

For instance, the common practice on the racetrack is to race in fourth or fifth position. The thought is to save energy during the race and be at the right place for the final sprint. They applied this strategy with me without ever considering my size and lack of muscular development. I struggled out of the starting gate. I had a hard time during the accelerating phase. They should have focused on my muscular development. Instead, they attempted to fit my unusual size to their system. Their racing strategy was conventional but totally ill adapted to my physique. They should have let me race behind and increase the speed progressively. Instead, they gave the order to the jockey to beat me from the beginning of the race. I reached the fourth position but I collapsed half way through the race completely out of strength.

Manchester retorted, same for me. They submitted me to their training scale without analyzing my anatomy and weaknesses. I read somewhere that, “Kyphosis was most frequently seen in young horses exhibiting varying degrees of bilateral stifle damage. Improvement only occurred if the underlying cause was resolved.”(1) I am practically born with a kyphosis and I have had many stifle problems, principally the left one. The underlying factor was the way I was using my vertebral column and not one trainer, until him, ever adapted their training scale to my physical peculiarity. They were not bad riders but they only knew one system and they all tried to fit me to the training technique that they where familiar with.

Quite frankly, the thought that all horses should be submitted to the same training scale is primitive. However, when it comes to the pyramid, I do not have much of an opinion; I have never been ridden by a pyramid.

Not only does volitional education further our learning capacities but active learning is, in fact, the sole approach that can direct our central nervous system, and in particular our brain, toward the body coordination precisely adapted to the athletic demands of the performance. Considering the forces that are induced in our vertebral column and limb structures, the magnitude of the misconceptions ruling our traditional education is disconcerting. Let’s talk about stretching and relaxation for instance. When I look to be at ease and responsive I am ready to perform any task he is asking me, I am activating my support muscles at all time. I am not relaxing them at all.

Sometimes during a training session, as I return to bad habits, he tells me, “To discover something new, you must be willing to loosen your grip on the old.” (Michael J. Gelb). I think that it is now my turn to give you the same advice. You will not understand how volitional education works if you think that our vertebral column and legs function the way the old style idea does. We do not create movements lengthening and shortening our back muscles. In fact, riding and training techniques attempting to increase such lengthening are forcing our back muscles to work in a dysfunctional way. I have often heard that long before I was born, scientific studies had exposed that the main function of our back muscles was to preserve the integrity of our vertebral column’s structure while allowing a little range of motion. My ancestors were hoping that finally, advances in scientific knowledge might redirect riding and training principles toward systems adapted to our physiology. Instead, and under the name of tradition, we are still submitted to training techniques in plain contradiction with the way our muscular system operates.

Of course, it is easy for me to explain how our muscles work since I feel each word I say. Let start with the most recent discoveries and then go back for clarity to older ideas. With the twenty first century, advanced research studies are referring more and more to theplasticity of muscles function. The concept does explain quite accurately how our muscular system operates.

For instance some muscles have a simple structural design, (sarcomeres in series, long muscles fibers and few connective tissue insertions,). These shorten when in contraction. This kind of muscle architecture can generate power; the power to move a joint during locomotion when the muscle is attached to the bonds through stiff tendons. The stiffness of the tendon is necessary to transmit power. As it is easier to visualize muscles and tendons of our lower legs, this architecture is the way our deep digital flexor muscles and tendons are built.

Even if this is what everyone tends to think, this concept relates to a fraction of what our muscles are really doing. Our main problem as equines is to save energy. We are massive creatures capable of sustaining a relatively high speed and for a long period of time. We owe our survival to such capacity. Given enough warning, we can outrun all of our predators. Some can sprint faster than us but only for a short period of time. Down to the cellular level, our adaptation (to what has been our survival imperative when we were wild animals) is about producing maximum power at minimum muscular energy cost. The simple type of muscle work that I described above is not cost effective. A much more efficient but also much more sophisticated muscular work is widely used throughout our body.

Our force producing muscles have a different architecture. They have sarcomeres in parallel, short fibers and many complex connective tissues compartments. They operate in isometric contraction, which mean that they do not lengthen or shorten. They just hold allowing their compliant tendons to be loaded with elastic strain energy. This is how our superficial flexor tendons and muscles function. In terms of energy, it is much more economical for a muscle to not shorten and instead let the tendons do the job. If our muscles are elongated while active in isometric contraction, the force produced is almost double the isometric force. This type of contraction is called eccentric contraction. It does happen quite often that during a movement, our muscles move into eccentric contraction to deal with a brief instant of particular intensity.

The problem is that our muscles can only lengthen 1 to 2% of their neutral length. Most of our back and hind leg problems result from asking the wrong type of work to our muscular system. I never had personally to deal with any stretching theory. On the racetrack the focus is speed and we create speed by stiffening our vertebral column’s muscles. By contrast, Manchester does know about the stretching business and he does not have anything good to say about it. My riders were asking me to increase the swinging motion of my vertebral column. They obviously did not know that the large majority of our back muscles can only lengthen a little. I guess, their misconceptions were the reason why riders, who otherwise were kind with me, were forcing me to work into a painful manner.

However, as accurate this explanation might be, it is also incomplete. The description makes it look like we are turning our muscle cells on and then, allowing the elasticity of our tendons do the job. I have more control than what is suggested in this theory. I have the capacity to utilize the thrust that I create with the hind legs for more balance control or more speed. I can even nuance quite subtly the work of my back muscles. Part of this control is inherent and part is learned. I guess more studies are necessary and in a few years humans may finally get it right.

Even within the limits of today’s knowledge, I do like the way he is applying scientific discoveries. He is guiding my brain toward advanced control of my physique. He is referring to volitional learning. I do like the mental activity and definitely the physical comfort that is associated with every move I am making.

Long before I was born, a Polish scientist theorized that each one of our vertebra does have the capacity to convert the thrust developed by our hind legs into horizontal forces, which are moving our body forward and vertical forces, which are resisting attraction of gravity. Heknows the study by heart and once he was thinking about the way the Polish researcher formulated his findings, “An initial thrust on the column is translated into a series of predominantly vertical and horizontal forces which diminish progressively as they pass from one vertebra to the next”. (2) I was ready to argue with the finding since I do not feel that I have control of each individual vertebra, but his next thought becomes more familiar. Tucker does not pretend that the horse does have perfect control of each individual vertebra. This was his investigative technique. The thought is that the main muscles of the vertebral column are capable of creating horizontal and vertical forces through the rotary systems of the vertebrae. Later, the thought was furthered with the work of an American pathologist named James Rooney. More recently, a French Professor named Jean Marie Denoix provided a comprehensive explanation of the way the vertebra rotate in relation to each other. The school of thought that dominated equine research of the twentieth century believed that a muscle has concentric (shortening), isometric (stay same length) and eccentric (stretching) contractions.

With the twenty first century, the knowledge is that the three types of muscle contractions effectively happen but at the level of the individual muscle fibers, not the muscle as the complex tissue. I was amused to see him thinking intensively about these findings when for me they were quite obvious. For us equines, the work of our vertebral column is much more dynamic than kinematic, which mean, that we are converting and redirecting forces much more than we are creating movements. However, it does look like riders have a different perception. They tend to interpret forces as movements.

I like to test my thoughts on Manchester. He listened to my explanation and then played with my sensitive string. Not bad for a thoroughbred. I was ready to question his warmblood’s superiority complex but he was already furthering his thoughts. Maybe you have a point there. The more riders try to understand how our muscular system really operates, the more likely they will move away from gross practices such as shifting their body weight and trying to stretch our back through lowering of the neck. Hopefully they will also question fundamental principles of their training scale, such as stimulus response, reward and punishment, correct aids equal correct movements. All along their history human artists, scientists and philosophers have emphasized the need for evolution but they have a hard time to loose their grip on old habits. Leonardo da Vincy, who created the Sforza equestrian model, which is a beautiful horse, that looks very much like me, insisted on questioning conventional wisdom. By the way, do you know that Leonardo was a good rider? Quite obviously I interested Manchester since he rarely talks with his mouth full of hay. What I like with modern understanding of our vertebral column’s muscular system is that it becomes quite obvious that only our central nervous system and in particular our brain, can efficiently coordinate such a complex mechanism. Perhaps, instead of annihilating our brain through dim obedience, our riders may realize than a true partnership would generate better performances while giving us a chance to remain sound. Then he swallowed his last bite and dropped the head for another full mouth of hay. I was thinking that such was his last words but he raised his head again and asked, do you know that I am a “dumbblood.” I looked at him incredulously and he added; this is the way they call us when we are not performing as they wish. The amusing side of the story is that they don’t know that in our world, the dumb is the rider and the blood is the horse.

Manchester makes me realize that I was effectively involved into volitional learning. He is placing me in the driver’s seat. He is actively engaging my brain and body and under his guidance, I am capable to process body synchronizations that I could not have put together by myself. The misconception that has run equine athletic training since centuries is that performances are the outcome of natural reflexes or genetic behavior such as pecking order, etc. We do not know by birth how to most efficiently carry a rider, shorten the stride between the two elements of a jumping combination, or execute a canter pirouette. We bring our talent to the specialty, but our skill does not include advanced knowledge of the performances’ athletic demands. If our education is limited to judging standards we perform at the best of our natural reflexes until lameness ends our career.

He teaches me for instance how to flex my back longitudinally. The equestrian education refers to this coordination as a round back. In fact, our vertebral column is never really round. The expression round back is a metaphor. As we convert through the biomechanics of our vertebral column, the thrust generated by the hind legs, which is basically a force in the direction of the motion, into vertical forces, which are resisting gravity, we are giving to the rider the feeling that our back is becoming round. We are creating through the biomechanics of our vertebral column, a dynamic phenomenon, (forces), that riders interpret as a kinematics phenomenon, (movements.)

He does not try to round my back via neck posture. Instead, he guides my brain toward greater conversion through my back of my hind legs’ propulsive activity into vertical forces, which are resisting attraction of gravity. I would never have thought of “rounding” my thoracolumbar column the way he taught me but I can feel that his solution gives me greater ease and much more advanced control of my body. Basically, he is guiding my brain to create muscular coordination eminently adapted to the performance but beyond the scope of natural reflexes.

He never shifts his body weight back to front or front to back. Instead, he always keep is body in neutral balance over his seat bones. This allows me to concentrate on his vertebral column’s movements. He reduces his vertebral column’s motion until he perfectly matches the amplitude of my vertebral column movements, which is extremely reduced. Once we are moving in harmony, I naturally make adjustments preserving such harmony, as it is more comfortable to dance the same dance. In order to stay in harmony with minute motions of his vertebral column and nuances in tone of his back muscles, I orchestrate into my brain, the many and minuscule contractions, compensatory contractions and nuances in the tone of my back muscles.

Via memory, I do have the capacity to associate voice commands or gestures with a given movement, but this type of education does not coordinate my physique athletically for the performance. On the contrary, the subject of our conversation is about coordinating efficiently my body for the athletic demand of the performance. I am particularly comfortable with the subtlety of the dialogue. Humans whose brains are lacking tend to bully us through heavy rein actions and large spurs. In reality we have a very high sensitivity level and the kindness and subtlety of his body language makes me feel safe and comfortable. I do not have to protect myself from aggressive or excessive movements.

“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend his whole life believing that it is stupid.” (Albert Einstein) Forcing us to perform with a dysfunctional physique, the equestrian education shatters our athletic abilities and self-confidence. Until now, Manchester believed that he was a dumbblood. He was submitted to a system that was not adapted to his physique and his mind gradually believed that he was stupid. Manchester is a quiet thinker who process information over night. One evening after work, he was taking care of Manchester. He patted Manchester on the neck telling him; that was pretty good. Think about it and you will find an even more efficient way. Manchester did think about it all night. He did not even eat all of his hay, which for Manchester is very unusual. The next day Manchester achieved his firsts sound steps telling me I can’t believe that I was capable to achieve such body control. He is the one who stimulated my brain and from simple thought to more complex ideas, I realized that I was capable to think further than I was trained to believe. He is teaching me to think and the more I use my mind, the greater I can control my physique.

One night Manchester summarized the situation. You have an almost perfect physique, so your brain can focus on finding the coordination allowing great performances. My body is less than perfect and my brain has to work as hard as yours simply to move soundly. I do not question the unfairness of life. I am proud of what I am doing as well as what you are doing. I told him, you are the philosopher of the family and knowing how your mind works, I often think about Edsger Dijkstra’s reflection; “Why has elegance found so little following?”

Chazot

(1) (Leo B. Jeffcott, Disorders of the thoracolumbar spine of the horse – a survey of 443 cases. Equine vet. J. 1980, 12, 4. 197-210)

(2) (Richard Tucker, Contribution to the Biomechanics of the vertebral Column, Acta Thoeriologica, VOL. IX, 13: 171-192, BIALOWIEZA, 30. XL. 1964)

2011-09-12T13:21:00.000-07:00

A New Approach To Lameness

http://www.scienceofmotion.com/new_approach_to_lameness.html

2011-08-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

"I am so proud of you"

Chazot's Thoughts

This Friday, I was watching Manchester working with the participants of the third Immersion Program. The riders coming to this advanced education program are not the average push and pull type of riders. They are interested in a more intelligent and subtle equitation. They come to further understand how our physique functions. Each rider does have his or her own style but there is an overall respect that pleases Manchester.

I love watching him feeling the riders. With his big ears always oriented forward, he looks imperturbable but knowing him, I can follow his thoughts. He is tuning himself to the rider, adjusting to the rider’s body language. Then, if he likes the rider, Manchester engages the conversation. I admire his willingness but also his self-confidence. He just keeps going his own way when he thinks that the rider is too loud or inconsistent.

Manchester never reacts angrily, he just plays dumb, which for him is an enormous mental evolution. Shortly after his arrival Manchester told me that he was a dumbblood. I responded angrily that a dumbblood was a warmblood ridden by a dumb rider. He liked the thought but deep under, he believed that he was a failure. Until he came to the Science of Motion, Manchester had been lame all of his life. Lameness is an expression of pain and in our psyche physical pain often leads to lack of self-confidence. Manchester resigned himself to a life of pain. He was telling me, you are the smart one, the athletic one, the number one in the farm. I am just a cripple. He was not jealous, he was resigned.

One day, coming back frustrated from a training session, he told me, this guy believes that I don’t have to be lame! I responded that in the matter of lameness he knows what he is doing. If he believes in you, you should believe in you too. Manchester stayed silent for a few hours; he did not even munch his hay, which is not at all Manchester’s style. I started to worry about him and looked at him intensively. He then turned his large head toward me saying, you know, years ago, I came to terms with the fact that I was a lame horse. Running, bucking and bouncing through the field was not for me. It could only happen in my dreams. I am a cripple and now you tell me that I could be sound and you worry me. Curiously, lameness is almost my safe world. I am from the school of thought; “repeat the movement to educate the body”. For years I repeated the movements but they did not educate my body. My riders knew how the movements were supposed to look so I took the blame for my lack of progresses. You are now telling me that my riders should never have asked me to repeat a movement without educating first my physique for the athletic demand of the movement. You are telling me that my education has been ill adapted to my physical difficulties. You are telling me that I am not a cripple but rather that I have been damaged by bad training. You are telling me that an equitation based on advanced understanding of my physiology has the potential to restore my soundness. This is a perspective that I never have previously heard or envisioned.

Effectively, when asking for the shoulder in, he focused on the longitudinal flexion and proper rotation of my thoracic spine. I was anxious to place my body at the 30% angle and travel on three tracks. It took me a few days to realize that he was not interested at all by these details. He was looking for a very specific coordination of my body and only when I found it, I started to perceive that the shoulder in was indeed, a gymnastic exercise. I never looked at my education from this perspective. I was a submitted horse. I was not a thinking horse. He challenged my brain until I found reflex combinations that are beyond the scope of my genetic heritage. First, I was afraid to experiment because I anticipated punishment. Instead, he acted as if errors were a normal part of the learning process. This has been a considerable evolution for me. I realized that I was able to think and that through mental processing I was capable of putting together quite sophisticated body coordination.

I am no longer afraid of errors and when I do realize my mistakes, I wait for him to give me some insight. He does not want my submission; he wants my mental participation. He helps me to think in the right direction. I have not been able to stabilize my left stifle because I never realized that the way I was twisting my vertebral column was creating abnormal kinematics of my left stifle. At first, as he was working my back, I was thinking that he did not even realize that it was my stifle which was in trouble. Then I observed that when he placed my back a certain way, the stress on my stifle vanished. I started to think with him instead of protecting myself from him. Without him teaching me how to think I would not have been reeducated because the coordination that allows me to be sound is far beyond anyone of my natural reflexes. Each individual reflex is natural but the coordination that keeps me pain free and sound is not. I did not know that I was mentally capable of processing beyond the scope of my natural reflexes.

I have to say that now that I know how well I can think, I do enjoy it. I do not enter the training ring worrying about what is going to happen to me; I am part of what happens to me. I am involved in each step of my education. I give him warnings when I feel difficulties and he suggests solutions. He wants me to tell him when the move is hard and he works with me until the move is easy. He is very concerned with ease. He knows that many layers of our complex muscular and neurological systems need to work in harmony and he found that ease is the best reference. Once he stopped me because I was trying in spite of physical pain. He told me then,” if it is not easy, you are not efficiently coordinated. Let me think about the problem. We need to approach it from a different perspective.” The next day we proceeded in a different direction. In fact I was thinking that he had decided to abandon the move until I realized that I was executing the move, effortlessly.

I could not resist teasing Manchester so I told him, well, this morning I saw you extremely angry against him. He was riding you explaining the difference between the real shoulder in and the shoulder in executed with excessive bending of the neck. Showing to the audience what should not be done, he pulled on the inside rein to bend your neck and you were furious. You turned your head, advancing your nose and opening your mouth showing your big teeth like he had pulled your tongue out. Let’s face it, you overreacted. He barely pulled on the inside rein and you reacted as if he had hit you in the teeth. Manchester lowered his head in contrition. I know that I overreacted. I could not control my impulse. It was like he betrayed me. I had a flash in my mind that we were returning to the type of riding that had been my life for so long. Before I realized that he did it solely for demonstration and for a very brief instant, my body, my mind, my whole self was screaming no!!!!!, not that again. I am embarrassed for my reaction.

I told Manchester, give yourself a break. Do not return to your slave mentality. You were great. Do you realize the magnitude of your evolution? You revolted against a type of riding to which you submitted yourself for years. In his cell assembly hypothesis, O, Hell wrote,“Long-term memories are frozen patterns waiting for signals of near resonance to reawaken them.” (1993) His rein action was near enough to reawaken the memory of a system that has crippled your body and you reacted strongly. You, Manchester, the king of submission, you loudly expressed your opinion. I am so proud of you. You are definitively part of the family. Believe me, he was positively impressed. He patted you on the neck apologizing for his hand action. He also pointed out that you were no longer willing to accept that type of bad riding. He added that you were absolutely right, that even as a demonstration he should not have lacked respect by pulling on your mouth.

Manchester’s lips twisted into a funny move. I know this smile; it usually does preclude some humoristic repartee. I was waiting for the hit but as always with Manchester, he took me by surprise. The technique must be good because even a guy like you does evolve. You, the all body and no brain type of athlete, you are becoming a philosopher. Socrates said, “Get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher” For you it works the other way. You found a good family and this gives you the confidence to think instead of blowing up.

I heard that in order to calm your brain from the frenzy of the racetrack, they gave you a sabbatical year. Helyn played with you over the fence teaching you all kinds of tricks. They both were amazed by your intelligence. You learned to give her a kiss in two minutes. It took a year for me to understand what she expected when she placed one finger on her right cheek. However, she did not diminish me. I heard her saying, “he is afraid of the gesture”.

They explored the thought that instead of letting you alone, your reeducation would be more efficient by challenging your intelligence. This is when he started your work in hand. You were interested by the challenge and little by little found comfort from creative thinking instead of frantic panic.

Arthur Schopenhauer wrote, "Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see." At first, I was thinking, this guy must be a genius because I don’t see what he sees. You were becoming very upset watching through the door or the window and I did not see anything. Soon I realized that you were very traumatized by your life at the race track. At two years old, you were already so big, so spirited and so powerful that everyone was afraid of you. Fear engenders violence and violence was the only relation you had with humans. You were taller than everybody else and you reared higher than life to save your life. You reared out of everything. It was like a drug, a state of frenzy that was your last refuge. We were somewhat alike. Lameness was my way of life. I was safe in lameness and afraid of exploring soundness. Frenzy was your escape and you were even looking for opportunity to go there.

He understood that punishing the rearing was the mistake that everybody else has done and has failed. Instead, he treated you as an intelligent horse and you responded. I know that as we moved in Georgia he was concerned that the intensity of his clinic schedule will not allow him to work you as regularly and intensively as you needed. We all knew that after two days without working you are out of your skin. Of course we are in turn out long hours every day but this does not replace regular training. I was concerned too and I was greatly impressed by your willingness to deal with the situation. I understand now that a great part of your frenzy was insecurity. You feel safe and loved and appreciated by their quietness around you. You feel comfortable enough to explore kindness too. You are kind with me. You are supportive, staying in front of the part of the stall where we can see each other when you realize that my old injuries are giving me hard time. The lunatic horse that I meet when I arrived is now a kind and smart friend.

As we both became more intelligent in our work, we have much greater quality of life. We process events of life with serenity and even humor. Humor is not supposed to be a privilege of our specie but humor is as fun for us as it is for humans. The problem with humor is that there is not much of it in the training world, especially with the ones who wears large spurs.

Chazot

www.scienceofmotion.com

2011-06-07T20:43:00.001-07:00

2006-12-13T22:42:00.000-08:00

PixiPort:Photography Art Videos

Animated Christmas lights - Pixar THX intro

2006-12-13T21:22:00.000-08:00


video of animated christmas lights playing the THX intro from the Pixar movies.

2006-12-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

Walking Table

2006-12-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

YouTube - Dr. Phil Kicks Guest Off Show: "Dr. Phil Kicks Guest Off Show"